i grew up in a funny little church. i'm going to go into the reasons it's funny, but fear not, i'm not going to save you. frankly, i'm too freaking busy trying to save myself these days...so don't let the title fool ya.
i want to tell you about the church, but more about the pastor....he was the root of everything wonderful there that outsiders, and some insiders i'm sure, never got.
He was a lieutenant colonel in the army air corps during ww2...so everyone just called him the colonel. he ran that church like the army too...it was mon, tues, wed, thurs, and twice on sunday...those weren't different classes or studies or feel good fellowship potlucks either, that was church. it was a constantly progressing study of the bible (non-denominational). if you had the nerve to miss, then fuck you, it just might cost you your soul on life's battlefield. but you could do what you want...
when you sat in the colonel's church, you didn't move a muscle (except to take notes) and you didn't utter a sound. respect. like the army i said, if you moved around, then you were considered to be distracting others from the word of god, and the colonel didn't put up with distractions...he'd throw your ass out, that's right, i grew up watching my pastor stop his sermon to tell some fidgety bastard to take it outside...tell me you've seen that?? he didn't do it all nicey-christiany sweet either, he yelled you out of the building like a drill sergeant...how dare you have the nerve to pull that shit in god's house, anyway...i can still see the veins popping out of his forehead...
we didn't sing much either, except for "christian soldier" which we sang every sunday. not the one you might know, same music, but the colonel changed the words. there was a lot more military imagery in the colonel's lyrics.
what an incredible man. i can tell you that i learned a lot of doctrine beyond the bible from him. he was an amazing teacher, very captivating...very focused on history, and was a humble respectful soldier in every breath.
i wish i could take you all back in a time machine...for the colonel is no longer there...he was a pastor for 53 years, but is disappearing in ahlzeimer's now. His son took over as pastor of the church and he's an entertaining, youthful chip off the old block.
besides making it to
cyberland, the colonel is still fighting the good fight in the hearts of the troops he trained...SALUTE
Posted by shoe at June 1, 2005 07:25 PM | TrackBack